THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016
You never know what the weather is going to do to the most important thing in sports.
Momentum.
Perfect conditions, it could be easy to get on a roll and leave an opponent in the dust.
Conditions, such as those that blessed the North Idaho College women’s soccer team against the Community College of Spokane, coaches might just be thrilled nobody got seriously injured.
IT IS kind of fitting that tonight’s Northwest Athletic Conference quarterfinal match at 7 between the North Idaho College women’s soccer team and Clark College had to be moved by weather.
Due to wet grounds at Clark’s field in Vancouver, Wash., today’s match has been moved from its campus to Delta Park, a short 3.7-mile drive from its campus on Interstate 5 between Washington and Oregon.
“They, like us, have a home field that’s pretty wet still,” NIC coach Dan Hogan said.
Then again, had today’s match been in Coeur d’Alene, chances are that they’d be playing elsewhere anyway. Just like Wednesday’s playoff opener, when NIC beat Green River 3-0 at Spokane Falls Community College. That game was moved because Eisenwinter Field on the campus of NIC was so torn up due to rain and mud because of a previous women’s match vs. Community Colleges of Spokane, that the men’s match, which was scheduled to follow, wasn’t able to be played due to field conditions.
“Our field will likely need another week of sunshine before we can do anything on it again,” Hogan said. “We’ve been training at other fields and really haven’t been able to do too much on our field lately.”
Clark beat NIC earlier this season in the Cardinals’ second match of the season, 2-0 on Aug. 28 in an NWAC friendly (or nonconference game) to open the season.
“They’ve got a really good forward (freshman Molly Joyce) that we’ll have to pay attention to,” Hogan said. “But we’ve got good balance on our team. We’re happy to be moving on. It was good to get the first playoff game under our belt and it should prepare us against Clark.”
And should they fall behind a little early on?
“I think we’re more composed to deal with that situation,” Hogan said. “Our kids can deal with that if we get into a situation when we get panicky.”
NOT THAT getting panicky is anything too bad, but when it comes to a Game 7 — with a rain delay — and one of your favorite teams as a kid with its season in the balance, panicky might not be the right word.
But according to whoever you listen to, there wasn’t much panic after the Chicago Cubs blew a lead late on Wednesday at Cleveland after Rajai Davis hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to tie the game at 6. Not even a little bit when they had to put the tarp on the field.
Thinking back, maybe that anxiety was reserved to those wondering if an 11 p.m. deadline was going to be missed due to rain, or worse yet, that the game might be postponed a day.
When the teams returned to the field, it didn’t take too long for the momentum to change and the Cubs found a way — somehow — to end that 108-year curse and win the World Series.
It might take a few days, weeks or even months for it to really hit me that the Cubs are world champions, finally.
Without that brief rain delay on Wednesday, who knows what might have happened that night.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.